Nashville senior Stephanie Taylor spent her Friday morning anticipating the arrival of President Clinton.

“I had been grinning all morning waiting to get here,” she said while standing in an airport hangar at the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport.

Clinton joined Taylor and others in the hangar to support Democrat Bruce Lunsford, a candidate for U.S. Senate.

Lunsford and Clinton took the stage after Kentucky democrats, including former Gov. Martha Layne Collins and Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, spoke.

Cheers and camera flashes erupted from the crowd as Clinton took the stage.

Having a new government isn’t just about electing a new president, Clinton said. Voters have to elect a new Congress, which is why races such as Lunsford’s are important.

“It’s important that you have people that you know that you can trust to think about you every time they vote,” Clinton said.

Union junior Shane Noem, president of the College Republicans, said Lunsford wanted Clinton to speak in Bowling Green because Mitch McConnell, the incumbent Republican senator who is Lunsford’s opponent, has strong support in the district.

Noem stood outside before the rally holding a banner which read “AP: Lunsford under criminal investigation.”

The banner referred to a complaint Republicans filed against Lunsford last week.

The complaint charges that he stole a GOP digital recording device at a U.S. Senate debate, according to an article in The Courier-Journal. It requests that authorities investigate the incident.

“We wanted people to know that he’s a thief, basically,” Noem said.

McConnell and his friends in Washington illegally bugged Lunsford’s podium, said Cary Stemle, spokesperson for Lunsford’s campaign, in an e-mail.

McConnell’s staff has been caught lying about the incident, Stemle said in the e-mail.

Noem said Clinton’s endorsement of Lunsford won’t have a big effect on voters.

Warren County voters gave McConnell 17,747 votes in the 2002 Senate race, said Donna Lewis, deputy clerk for the Warren County clerk’s office. McConnell’s opponent, Democrat Lois Combs Weinberg, got 6,741 votes.

“I know for a fact that he will carry Bowling Green and the rest of the state,” Noem said. “I’m very confident in that.”

But others, such as Hawesville senior Stacy Robertson, think Clinton’s endorsement will affect voters.

“I think it’ll affect in a big way,” Robertson said. “A lot of Republicans I’ve talked to have said ‘Yeah, he was a great president,’” she said of Clinton’s popularity.

Corey Alderdice, assistant director of admissions and public relations for the Academy of Math and Science, said Clinton’s endorsement could be the tipping point for undecided voters, like himself.

“McConnell has been able to bring a lot of projects to Kentucky,” Alderdice said. “I’m certainly interested in hearing new perspectives, since McConnell’s been there for a quarter of a century now.”

Reach Marianne Hale at news@chherald.com.